People don’t have to be anti-Semites to be enemies of Israel and the Jewish people. And that is not an academic distinction without a difference.
Our community’s external and internal battles often involve how we understand meanings, connotations and implications of words. These words include “anti-Semitism,” “anti-Semitic” and “anti-Semite.”
Some examples of this appeared in the May Chronicle. Caroline Glick is contributing editor of the Jerusalem Post and an impassioned advocate of Israeli control over all territory “between the river [Jordan] and the sea [Mediterranean].” During her Milwaukee speech on March 30, she called the Students for Justice in Palestine “an anti-Semitic hate group.”
A few days earlier, two anti-Zionist Jews appeared at an event organized by Marquette University’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine: author Max Blumenthal and Rabbi Brant Rosen of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, Ill. They called such allegations “fabrications” and “slurs.”
Both of these events remain thought-provoking, at least for me. Among those thoughts: Maybe these and other passionate antagonists are not talking about the same things when they say “anti-Semitism,” “anti-Semitic” or “anti-Semite.”
I get the impression that to many people on “the left,” Jewish and not, “anti-Semites” have specific animus to Jews on a “racial” basis, and want to see all Jews murdered to the last infant. And because these people do not have those feelings — or at least most of them claim they don’t — they feel they are not “anti-Semites” and resent having that term applied to them.
For many Jews on “the right,” however, “anti-Semitism” includes any effort, policy and even thought that opposes or criticizes anything they believe is in the survival interests of the Jewish people. For example, many Jews in this camp believe Israeli control of “Judea and Samaria” is essential to Israel’s ability to defend itself and a mandate from traditional Judaism. Therefore, to them it is “anti-Semitic” to advocate setting up a Palestinian Arab state in those territories — even if Jews are doing the advocating and claiming justification from Jewish ethical principles.
In short, this looks like a conflict between understanding “anti-Semitism” as a motivation — deliberately seeking to harm and ultimately destroy Jews and Judaism — and “anti-Semitism” as a possible effect — having potential or presumed harmful consequences to Jews and Judaism even if such effects are not the avowed intent.
I think it may be useful to distinguish between these two. Obviously, all people with anti-Semitic motivation — who think Jews need to be removed from humanity — are our enemies.
But we can and do have enemies with motivations that do not involve hating Jews and Judaism. Some think U.S. support of Israel is not in this country’s best political interest.
Many Muslims think all human beings should be Muslims; and they are therefore as much opposed to Christianity, Hinduism and all other religions as to Judaism. Some people dislike the idea of a state that “favors” any religious or ethnic group on grounds of belief in pluralistic democracy and/or opposition to nationalism, and they do not perceive why Israel should be an exemption to such principles.
None of the people in these last-named groups has hatred for Jews as the primary motivation for these views. (Some may have such hatred as a secondary motivation.) But in my view, all of them are still enemies because they regard the safety, freedom and even survival of Jews and Judaism with indifference and as expendable for something else. And as Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel has said, “Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred.”
Calling such people “anti-Semites” may be harmful to the Jewish cause. For one, it often stiffens their resolve and makes them unwilling to listen to us. For another, it enables us to dismiss these people and ignore their concerns and issues, thereby preventing us from thinking about them and devising effective responses — and even from working to correct real problems they do at least sometimes point out.
It is almost always best to fight enemies on their own ground, intellectual as well as physical, and we cannot do that unless we understand that ground. Indeed, such understanding may provide clues on how to turn enemies, or possible enemies, into friends.
Meanwhile, I have heard that some Chronicle readers felt upset by the front page of the May issue, with its prominent display of extreme positions. Letters to the editor are the best way to express and share your views on such topics. The Chronicle values readers’ voices and seeks to present lively and constructive community discussions, so please write.
Note: All the signed opinion articles in The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, including the Editor’s Desk columns, represent solely the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the staff members and professional and lay leaders of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and its agencies.
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